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From the time I saw my first futon, to the day I discovered davenport hinges at a New Orleans trade show, I'd been thinking about how to turn futons into better-made sofa-beds. The sofa-bed industry seemed to be enamored with the traditional pull-out Hide-A-Bed, 4" thick, undersized mattress with a bar-in-your-back type of thing, and I wanted to go in another direction.
The futon furniture industry was heading down the path to lower prices, but I felt that was short-sighted and wrongheaded. I kept thinking that if we wanted to offer a better alternative to the standard pull-out sofa bed, we'd have to address the things that people disliked...actually hated ...about that kind of furniture. Starting with the fact that they were large and heavy, difficult to open and close, and basically quite uncomfortable to sleep on. And, at an average retail price of $999, not really inexpensive. My Xerox background in New York City had taught me that if you build a better product and complement it with superior service, people will gladly pay your price as long as it's competitive. With that in mind, I went in search of a factory.
At that point in my life, my young family was growing up fast, and my mother was visiting twice a year from her home in suburban Philadelphia. That just added more fuel to the fire. Now I HAD to develop something good.....and soon. The last thing in the world I wanted was for my mother to be uncomfortable or to miss out on a good night's sleep when she was visiting her precious grandchildren. After all, she had spent her life making my life better, so I figured the least I could do was to make sure she was comfortable whenever she visited. And, when I thought about it, I realized there must be a lot of people out there with exactly the same concerns. And so, the development of the LofaBed had begun in earnest.
I found a family-operated factory in suburban Montréal that had been manufacturing upholstered furniture for almost 30 years. I like family run businesses because they usually have a high degree of pride in their work and are generally more open to the ideas of outsiders, like me. The first thing I did was insist on having an 8" thick standard-sized mattress.....I knew that was a sore point with other sofa sleepers, and I wanted to be able to say that, "fitted sheets will fit." And with a mattress that thick, no one would have to worry about feeling anything underneath, like a bar-in-your-back. Then, basically, I listed all the things I hated about traditional sofa beds: too heavy, difficult to operate, undersized and thin mattress, squeaky springs, too big to go into the basement or thru a small doorway, bar-in-your-back when sleeping, and too expensive. Of course, I also had to address the futon complaint of compression and hardness. Applying my own common sense and the factory's 30-years of upholstery experience, this is what we came up with:
1) 8" Thick Upholstered Futon Mattress..... With four layers of 1.5 density foam and four layers of 8 lb. cotton batting, this is one thick, comfortable mattress. And the fact that it's a standard 54"x75" means that fitted sheets will fit nice and tight. People ask about the buttons, and I answer that by protecting the fabric with both a fitted sheet and a mattress pad, the buttons become a non-factor. But they do look good.
2) Storage in the Base..... This is one of the unique features of all davenports. The storage cavity is 75"x27"x7" high, and is plenty big enough for sheets, blankets, pillows, and more. The addition of a storage facility makes the LofaBed ideal for small apartments or any room where space is at a premium.
3) Davenport Clic-Clac Mechanism..... This is the second unique feature common to all davenports. As you can see in the video window (1B), this is one sofabed that even a 10-year-old can operate. The davenport mechanism allows the LofaBed to be placed up against a wall, and still open to the bed position with ease and control and very little effort. Our latest hinge offers two sitting position angles: one for teenage slouchers, and the second for the rest of us.
4) Pirelli Elastic Webbing..... This is where the LofaBed separates itself from the world of futons. Futon mattresses sit on wood or metal slats, offering distance off the ground but precious little comfort. Over time, they usually bottom out. Traditional upholstered furniture places springs underneath the cushions for that sink-in, luxurious feeling. And the LofaBed approximates that experience with a pattern of criss-crossed Pirelli elastic webbing directly underneath the futon mattress. Introduced to me by a local Italian/Canadian associate, I was told this is how most expensive Italian furniture is made. The webbing acts like a spring, offering both comfort and longevity to the LofaBed experience.
5) All Canadian Hardwood Construction..... In a world where domestic furniture manufacturers are trying everything and anything to compete with the imports, the LofaBed is still constructed of 100% Canadian hardwood. Whether its oak, ash, maple, or birch...whatever the factory selects is going to be strong and long-lasting. After all, it's made in Canada, eh?
6) Knocked-Down for Easy Moving..... The LofaBed is designed for people on the go. Whether you're moving to another city or just a different room, it's a major benefit to be able to make big pieces of furniture smaller and lighter to handle. The LofaBed is designed so that the arms and futon mattress are removable, and the biggest piece weighs only about 100 lbs. and can still fit through an opening as small as twelve inches (12")! Down the basement, up to the attic, around a corner.....there's almost no place a LofaBed cannot go. In fact, many of our sales are based on the premise that the LofaBed is the only piece of furniture that fits where the customer wants to put it (think mobile homes, trailers, boats).
7) Low, Padded Arms for Napping..... We've been making the LofaBed for ten years now, and we know that many people use it when watching TV. I'm a Philadelphia Eagles and 76ers fan, and my wife loves movies.....but neither of us can finish our favorite entertainment without a nap. So I asked the factory to make the arms as low as a double bed pillow, and add extra padding, so that napping would be enjoyable, not painful. In fact, a couple of the arms (Galaxy, Tommy) are so comfortable for napping, that a person too tall for standard bedding, could use them for full-time sleeping!
8) Made-to-Order in 1-2 weeks..... Most upholstered furniture is sold from inventory. If the store has to special order it, 90 days is the norm. Then along comes the LofaBed, which is made-to-order from among 62 fabrics, eight arm styles (including the California Collection), and five sizes.....and still gets shipped within 1-2 weeks from order date. And every once in a while, when time is of the essence, we can make and ship one within a week! Incroyable!
9) Competitively Priced..... The average price for a full size LofaBed, in any fabric and in any arm style, is only US$891, and that includes delivery to any state in the U.S. northeast! Considering the many feature/benefits listed above, that's a pretty competitive price. Much lower than any store could sell it for. That's because my overhead is low, we're shipping your order directly from the factory, and I work on a lower-than-normal profit margin.
So there you have it: a common-sense approach to sofa-bed design. I asked people what they wanted in a sofa bed, and then I told a factory to give them what they wanted. This is difficult? I don't think so. In fact, the only question I've ever been asked that I have no answer for is, "Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?" Good question.
Mitch Wapen |
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